At present, my husband- Johann- has a three year old Lab named (he came to us with it, honest!): Scooby Doo. He was 54 pounds when our son brought him to us when he discovered he could not have a dog in his apartment complex. The jest of the matter- our son was the pup’s third owner before Scooby was even one year old! Those who bought him were not truly aware how BIG and ‘floppy’ Labs are, one even had him a “lap dog”, longer story short: the pup came down with Parvo a short time after delivered to us, I thought he was a “goner” and we would have to put him down– our veterinarian, a good sum of money, soul-searching, and prayer saved the dog, which means we saved him twice; he’s my husband’s best friend now- I am so very happy we could save his life for him to bring MY husband such joy.

As for me, a short time after we were married, I brought home two puppies that were hanging around a local playground- obviously “dumped”; we were to decide which to keep- of course each of us liked the other pup and we kept both. Beau was our “outside dog”- he just loved being outside ALL of the time, even during a scary blizzard! The other, Fair Lady Sunshine, was our inside dog- an excellent protector: they were of Border Collie and German Shepard mix, she weighing only around 35 pounds with the German short hair and the beautiful Collie color. Nearing 12 1/2 years old (and being the only dog I was ever able to call “mine”- she was trained to do all sorts of tricks as well as carry baskets in her month to me!- she fell ill; the vet gane her 6 weeks to 6 months to live due to the diagnosis of liver cancer (which, besides hip displacement, seems to be an inherited gene of German Shepards), She wanted to do her ‘business’ outside no matter what, so I would carry her outside since the stairs hurt her.

Exactly 6 months later, she ‘passed over’ in our living room, just trying to still be a good, no- GREAT dog! I had that six months to grieve over her impending demise and continued to take her to the vet when she had bad spells, even gave her “time saving” surgery, at a huge cost, thinking this just might save her- period… obviously, it did not, but we were able to have additional quality time together. Beau, her brother, ‘passed’ six months later—in his great outdoors… both good dogs and missed to this day!

Lin from OH